The Delta House

HARTFORD, Conn. -- High school football coaches in Connecticut will have to be good sports this fall -- or risk a suspension.

The football committee of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which governs high school sports, is adopting a "score management" policy that will suspend coaches whose teams win by more than 50 points.

A rout is considered an unsportsmanlike infraction and the coach of the offending team will be disqualified from coaching the next game, said Tony Mosa, assistant executive director of the Cheshire, Conn. - based conference.

Some states, including Iowa, continuously run the game clock in the second half if a team has a 35-point lead. The Connecticut committee rejected a similar proposal because members thought it would unfairly cut into backups' playing time.

This is a joke, right? The athletic conference isn't really trying to have an influence on the final score of high school football games, are they? Please tell me that I woke up this morning in The People's Republic of China because there is no way that this should be happening in America.

The premise, I must admit is a good one because there are some asshole coaches that intentionally try to run up the score of games by calling timeouts, continuing to pass or going for it on fourth down when they are already ahead by 30 points. But the score of a game should be decided on the field by the players, not in some conference room in Hartford by a governing body.

Besides, what is the purpose of this rule? To save a child's self esteem? This ruling will not help children, in fact, it may hurt them.

Let's face it, life is not fair. Sometimes in life, you will take an ass kicking, and you should learn that early on. It will build your character as you battle through it. I personally believe that you can never truly learn what it takes to win until you do some losing. And sometimes, the loss will be significant.

But you have to pick yourself up and move forward. It's these lessons that we learn early in life that help determine who we will become later. If a child is shown that someone will protect them from getting their ass kicked on the football field, then what is their incentive to actually try avoid getting the ass-kicking in the first place? More importantly, how is that child going to deal with getting laid off from their job later in life?

I have read that there are actually youth baseball and soccer leagues where they don't keep score and everyone gets a trophy at the end of the year. Many schools no longer reveal class rankings or name a valedictorian. What kind of a message does this send to our children?

Again, let’s face it, some children are smarter, more athletic, more determined, more talented, or more attractive than others. It's a fact. So why do we keep trying to make the other less intelligent, less athletic, less determined, or less attractive kids feel better by deceiving them? I don't get it.

As for the implementation of this rule, how does the coach tell a backup player to go into the game and not play to the best of his ability? This committee though it would be unfair to cut into a backup's playing time, but would it really be fair to tell him to go into the game and play at half his ability level? That is when players get hurt. And anyone that has ever competed in organized sports can confirm that.

Bottom line, I believe that children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. But don't deceive them.

Please.

*** You know that I am pissed about this because I really wanted to post today about it being John Wayne's birthday, and how you should celebrate it by watching The Quiet Man today on Turner Classic Movies. Errrrrrr.